Xona Space Systems is launching a rival to GPS using 258 satellites in low-Earth orbit, with the first six production satellites scheduled for October 2026.
The Pulsar satellites will deliver signals 100 times stronger than GPS, enabling location accuracy within several centimeters and working reliably indoors and in jamming-prone environments where conventional GPS fails.
The company has already tested its first satellite and signed precision-timing customers in financial markets and telecommunications.
What happened
California-based Xona Space Systems will launch its first six production Pulsar satellites in October 2026, with early service starting in 2027. The company has already launched Pulsar-0 on July 1, 2025, and aims to eventually deploy 258 satellites into low-Earth orbit to provide positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services. Live-sky jamming tests showed that Pulsar's 100 times stronger signal than GPS can reduce a jammer's effective area by 95 percent.
Why it matters
Xona's satellites could provide centimeter-level location accuracy and work indoors, under thick foliage, and in urban canyons where GPS fails. The stronger signal is also more resilient to jamming that increasingly disrupts commercial flights, maritime shipping, and smartphone apps. Timing services would be available to financial markets, telecommunications, data centers, and transportation systems. Early customers are likely to be defense, national security, and government agencies that depend on reliable PNT services.
What to watch
The full constellation of 258 Pulsar satellites will take several years to deploy after the October 2026 launch. Timing services accurate to within 10 nanoseconds are expected once the constellation grows to about 16 satellites. Centimeter-level positioning will become possible with four Pulsar satellites in view, which Xona expects to achieve for priority regions before completion of the full constellation.
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Xona's revival of low-Earth orbit navigation represents a return to principles explored by the Transit system, the US Navy's first satellite navigation network deployed in the 1960s. Transit used Doppler shift measurements from satellites in low orbit to locate submarines but could only provide fixes every hour or two because its 36-satellite constellation was too sparse. GPS replaced it by using medium-Earth orbit satellites, which required fewer spacecraft but operated at higher altitude with weaker signals. The fundamental trade-off—more satellites in lower orbit for stronger signals versus fewer satellites in higher orbit for broader coverage—now favors the low-orbit approach because manufacturing and launch costs have dropped dramatically, driven largely by SpaceX's reusable rockets.
Xona's competitive edge rests on two technical breakthroughs: signal strength and authentication. The 100 times stronger signal compared to GPS can penetrate buildings and reduce jamming vulnerability—a critical advantage as GPS disruption becomes endemic to aviation, shipping, and consumer apps. The company has already demonstrated this in live-sky jamming tests that reduced effective jammer range by 95 percent. Xona is also incorporating anti-spoof watermarks into its signals, addressing a security gap in traditional GPS. Early tests improved Pulsar-0's ranging accuracy from 4.2 centimeters to 1.5 centimeters, suggesting the full constellation could deliver centimeter-level geolocation.
The company's hiring strategy reveals confidence in execution: Tim Graham, formerly the engineering manager for SpaceX Starship's Raptor engines, joined to lead satellite development; co-founder CEO Brian Manning previously redesigned Falcon 9 thrust structures at SpaceX. This talent migration signals that low-cost constellation deployment, once a research problem, is now an engineering discipline that proven engineers are willing to bet their careers on. The October 2026 target for six production satellites is aggressive but grounded—the company has already completed two satellite buses and is conducting vibration testing, a standard SpaceX methodology that Graham brought with him.
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